International Student Scores (PISA): We’re Number 22

When it comes to competing with students from around the world, American fourth and eighth graders are simply not measuring up. Every three years, the OECD conducts the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a global educational examination involving around 600,000 15-year-old students from around the world. Students take a two-hour test in mathematics, science, and reading. Over sixty-five countries, representing 90 percent of the world’s economies, participate in the PISA program. The 2022 results are the latest; PISA was postponed during the pandemic years. The World Population Review noted that “Since a high ranking on PISA corresponds to economic success, researchers have concluded that PISA is one of the indicators of whether school systems are preparing students for the 21st-century global knowledge economy.”

Students in the United States ranked 22nd overall in the 2022 PISA testing. American students ranked 11th in science but ranked 28th in mathematics. The “bleak” math scores were offset by improved scores in reading and science. About 66 percent of US students performed at least at the basic level of math, while 80 percent scored at the basic levels in science and reading. China scored the highest. The World Population Review noted, however, that these scores from China should be taken with a “pinch of salt.” The Chinese scores were based on students living in Beijing, Shanghai, and two adjacent provinces, rather than testing throughout the country. Yet, the level of income in these testing regions was well below the OECD average.

In addition, students in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, and the Czech Republic all scored higher than students in the United States. Students in France, Portugal, and Austria scored slightly below the American students.

Sources: “PISA Scores by Country, 2022”, OECD, https://www.oecd.org/publication/pisa-2022-results/; “PISA Scores by Country, 2018,” World Population Review, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/pisa-scores-by-country Data from OECD 2019 PISA report; Sarah Mervosh, “Math Scores Dropped Globally, but the US Still Trails Other Countries,” New York Times, December 5, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/us/math-scores-pandemic-pisa.html.